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Google to anoint Android, Chrome OS love (eventually)

When two become one

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Google has confessed that its Chrome OS and Android projects are likely to come together at some stage down the line as the firm continues to tinker with its operating system vision of the future.

The world's largest ad broker has been developing two platforms independently from one another. Android is an operating system intended for mobile phones, while Chrome OS is being built for netbooks.

Following last week's announcement that Google would open source its Chrome OS, many speculated what the firm's latest move with that project would mean for Android.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin told CNet that "Android and Chrome will likely converge over time". He pointed out the underlying Linux and Webkit code that's present in both platforms.

It's perhaps odd then that the two projects have remained separate from each other until now. There's clearly a benefit from the platforms remaining independent as Android and Chrome OS can presumably gain more code from the disparate open source community.

"We're reaching a perfect storm of converging trends where computers are behaving more like mobile devices, and phones are behaving more like small computers," said Google product management veep Sundar Pichai.

However, there's still a huge hurdle for the two projects to overcome before Google can commit to any wedding vows, because while Android lets users install their own apps on the mobile device, Chrome OS only supports web apps (ie online services offered mostly by Mountain View) for now. ®